Frazzled Like a Frazzled Thing

Hello and welcome to a (finally!) snowy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is December 9th. 

Welcome to the midway point of the holiday season!The Christmas weekend proper kicks off in two weeks. Are you ready? Unless you're the type of person who is exceptionally talented in planning ahead with decorations, gifting, card-sending, and baking - which I'm not - then the answer is a resounding "No."

Halfway through the holidays, I see two types of festivities getting underway: the first is a party of frolickers merrily crunching on crushed peppermint candies in the premium hot chocolate they just made from a fresh hot cocoa bomb (which they also thought to make ahead of time), and the second gang of the frazzled folks who are just nervously crunching anything storebought on the table as they feel the barometer of their bodies measure the atmospheric pressure steadily rising from their guts to gills.

Last week, I kicked off a 4-week holiday reflection on lesser-embraced emotions with Yarn of Disappointment. This week is all about anxiety.

Week 2 of the holidays is usually when I look around and say, "Holy Santa Bells! I haven't started a single thing!" That's not actually true - I've got some shopping done, we have a date picked for our annual Christmas tree cutting, and, well, that's about it. But it feels like I haven't done a single thing. (Oh, and I've thought about baking and I looked at the holiday card sales.)

This week makes me feel especially sensitive (read: prickly) because I get stuck in a  Christmas carol comparison titled, "Everyone's Better Than Me."

Everyone's better than me...because they already have their Christmas tree up. (Nevermind that we intentionally wait, per our cultural and faith tradition until December 24th to put up our tree.)

Everyone's better than me...because they took advantage of President's Day sales, 4th of July blowouts, Labor Day layaways, Black Friday opps, and Cyber Monday steals throughout the y-eeeeeea-rrrrrr.

Everyone's better than me...because they bought wrapping paper for 70% the day after Christmas (Boxing Day to my Canadian readers) in twenty twenty-twoooo-wooo-wooo.

Everyone's better than me...because all of their presents are wrapped. (Boohoooo-wooo-woooo)

Everyone's better than me...because they are already adorning potluck tables with cute plates of absolutely adorable, ornately decorated Christmas cookieeesy-eesy-ieeees. 

Everyone's better than me...because those sweet treats are plated on fancy platters (which they also got at 50% last year.)

Everyone's better than me...because their holiday cards hit my mailbox the first Monday after Thanksgiving. 

The cardstock is gorgeous

The lettering divine

Oh, Lord, please hand me a glass of mulled wiiiiiiiinnne!!!!

This tune of lament has an undertwinkle of bells sing-a-linging 🎜🎝 *chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate* 🎜🎝 as I picture Sandra Boynton's Frazzled Thing in her book, Happy Hippo, Angry Duck: A Book of Moods.

If this resonates with you, may I also add this little light of hope through the craze: IT'S NOT TOO LATE.

"Small steps are better than no steps," I tell students and book coaching clients. So set down the spiced wine and chocolate, grab a pencil and scrap of paper (an expired JCPenney catalog works), and begin again.

start by turning off that tinny keeping-up-with-the-joneses tune and write yourself a new song.

Make a list of all the things you think you need to get done between now and December 24th. Yep, ALL the things. Take a look at the list and ask yourself what MUST be done and what you WANT done. Put an (M) by the Musts and a (W) by the wants. Group all the Ms together and all the Ws together. Now you've got 2 separate lists. If you want, you can throw away the WANT list now, because you know that, while these might feel important, they aren't necessarily urgent. 

Grab that MUST list and pick ONLY 3 things that MUST get done then prioritize them 1, 2, 3 - as in first thing (that must get done) second thing, and third thing. 

Ahhh...who am I kidding? I feel frazzled just thinking about this!

Just know this: It's okay to feel anxious, nervous, worried. Try your best to breathe, parce out what needs to be done versus what you would like to have done - and turn on some real Christmas music to tune out the stress and focus on the joy of the season.

For much better advice than I am providing, check out Kathy Magnusson's 4-part blog series Unwrapping Peace, Gift #1 and Gift #2 (Gift #3 to be released on December 14th and Gift #4 on the 21st) to find more tips for handling your stress through the holidays.

Hang in there! Only two weeks to go. You can do it!